Denis Leonidovich Shtilerman is the chief designer and co-owner of Fire Point, a Ukrainian defense technology company headquartered in Kyiv.
Denis Shtilerman was born in Kyiv in the mid-1970s. In the summer of 1991, he passed the entrance exams for the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, from which he was expelled early. However, he holds a degree in physics.
In 2014, he participated in the events on Maidan and later assisted the ATO. Media reports indicated that in 2016, his Russian citizenship was allegedly revoked.
He is one of the co-owners of Fire Point, which was founded in 2022 and specializes in the design, development, and production of long-range strike drones and cruise missiles. The company’s flagship products are the FP-1 drones and the Flyingo FPE-5 cruise missile, which are used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
On August 29, 2025, the Kyiv Independent reported that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) had launched an investigation into potential overpricing of Fire Point drones. The company’s ties to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s business partner Timur Mindich, who is also under investigation by NABU, are being examined separately.
According to the Kyiv Independent, in August, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine began investigating Fire Point’s activities, suspecting it of overpricing UAVs and questioning the little-known firm’s ability to fulfill orders from the Ministry of Defense. NABU investigators and industry experts were surprised that Fire Point, which had virtually no experience in weapons manufacturing, was able to secure a large-scale order for its products.
However, NABU representatives soon announced that they were not investigating the "Flamingo" missile.
